Strategic considerations regarding trademarks, patents and designs: Appeals in PBR, 1977-2016

Important results from the project

The aim of the project has been to shed light on strategic considerations with regard to intellectual property rights. The interest in appealing PRV´s decision in the Court of Appeals (PBR) has generally fallen during the period studied. At both company and industry level, there is variation regarding appeals. In a majority of cases, companies rather than individuals are plaintiffs. Among individuals, these are mainly men. The findings also indicate that financial markets tend to reward companies that invest in IP such as designs, patents and trademarks.

Expected long term effects

In innovation policy and corporate strategies, IP tends to be treated homogeneously. However, the results of this project reveal high variation among both companies and individuals with regard to how they act strategically in relation to different types of IP such as patents, trademarks and designs. In addition, international conditions such as legislation and technological competition affect companies´ activities pursued to defend IPs of various kinds. Defense of IP and financial markets´ valuation of IP indicate that IP is considered a critical strategic asset for companies.

Approach and implementation

The project has collected extensive data on both court decisions in PBR and listed companies´ IP holdings. A dataset has been constructed consisting of all appeals concerning patents, trademarks and design protection that have been decided by PBR, a total of 21,641 observations. The project has also collected a matched dataset that is based on data from PATSTAT, EUIPO and PRV and includes information on Swedish listed companies´ holdings of patents, trademarks and designs for the period 1991-2016.